The Daddy Effect

CORPUS CHRISTI - I have a little cousin who (I hope) is going through a phase known as the terrible threes.

This child, whom I'll call "Sophie," is a sassy, rambunctious three-year-old whose need to be in everything makes the antics of Curious George look tame in comparison.

Sophie is a big enigma wrapped in a little body. She is intelligent yet unfocused. She takes in everything yet cannot seem to sit still for longer than three seconds. She is hardheaded, willful and unyielding when it comes to getting her way, yet she has the innocent smile of an angel.

After meeting Sophie for the first time over the holidays, I was convinced she was the female equivalent of Bill Cosby's "Jeffrey," the little boy who terrorized passengers during an airplane flight whom Cosby hilariously immortalized in one of his comedy routines.

Jeffrey has got nothing on Sophie, who tested the patience of everyone with whom she came into contact, including myself. The only — and I mean the only — person Sophie would listen to was her father. The minute he stepped into the room, Sophie went from destructive hell raiser to Most Well-Behaved Child of the Year.

The transformation was amazing. A command to do something that had to be repeated 20 times only had to be spoken once when daddy said it. Threats of a spanking yielded nothing, but all daddy had to do was give her a stern look and Sophie would mind. She straightened up at the mere sound of her father's voice. Her face beamed with joy each time he entered the room. No matter what she was doing, Sophie would drop everything and run to him with her arms outstretched shouting, "Daddy!"

Sophie was completely enamored with her father. Her desire to please him above anyone else, her immediate response to his voice and her joyful reaction to his presence made me think to myself, "This is how God wants us to react to him."

God is a father, and we as his children who have accepted his salvation through Christ, "have received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, 'Abba, Father,'" according to Romans 8:15.

The closest English translation to the Aramaic word "Abba" is "daddy."

When was the last time you dropped everything to take joy in the presence of God? Do you respond immediately to the sound of his voice, or do you put him off? Is your ultimate desire to please him above all others or are you more concerned with pleasing yourself?

I saw a lot of us, God's children, in Sophie: defiant, rebellious, wanting our own way. The difference was Sophie wanted to heed her father's voice, while many of us have become complacent to the voice of our heavenly Daddy who delights to hear us cry, "Abba, Father!"

Despite our rebellious, stubborn ways, God is absolutely crazy about his children, and there is nothing he wouldn't do for us. Sometimes, I think he just wants us to drop everything and run to him with our arms outstretched shouting, "Daddy!"